Microencapsulation of phase change materials (PCMs) is an attractive opportunity for broadening their applications. In this respect, a novel encapsulating polymer, ethyl cellulose (EC) was used to entrap n-hexadecane (HD) PCM by an emulsion-solvent evaporation method. Emulsifiers strongly influenced the size and morphology of the forming EC-HD composite microcapsules, and they also had a great impact on their thermal properties. All of the three emulsifiers were suitable to prepare quasi core-shell microparticles, though the high porosity of shells resulted in serious leakage in composites prepared by Tween 80, and permeability of particles manufactured by poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), as can be stated from scanning electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry analysis. Interfacial tension measurements and spreading coefficient analysis enabled the prediction of preparation conditions for usable core-shell microcapsules. Volume weighted mean diameters of the microparticles were 319 m, 92 m and 85 m formed by Tween 80, PVA and poly(methacrylic acid sodium salt) (PMAA), repectively. A significantly higher HD content and latent heat storage capacity could be achieved using PVA and PMAA than with Tween 80. The thermal cycling test indicated good thermal reliability of microcapsules prepared by PMAA, while the energy-storing capacity of composites prepared by PVA decreased substantially, and a dramatic reduction was found in microparticles using Tween 80.

This study investigates encapsulation efficiency of model drug, encapsulated by magnetic PLGA (poly D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles (NPs). This is the following part of our preceding paper, which is referred in this paper as Part I. Magnetic nanoparticles and model drug human serum albumin (HSA) loaded PLGA NPs were prepared by double emulsion solvent evaporation method. Among five important process variables, concentration of PLGA and concentration of HSA in the inner aqueous phase Encapsulation efficiency of nanoparticles ranged from 18 to 97% depending on the process conditions. Higher encapsulation efficiencies can be achieved by using low HSA and high PLGA concentrations. The optimization process, carried out by exact mathematical tools using GAMS TM /MINOS software makes it easier to find out optimum process conditions to achieve comparatively high encapsulation efficiency (e.g. 92.3%)for relatively small sized PLGA NPs (e.g. 155 nm).